In all seriousness, this is what happens when you write novels without doing any world-building and just put down whatever seems “fun”. The are sooooo many things in that series that make no sense once they are superceded by later plot devices. Rowling didn’t think any of it through ahead of time and gave almost no thought to internal consistency with previous content when she wrote new things.
It’s honestly a terrible series in most regards and it’s kind of disappointing how popular it became.
Also she a trans-hating bigot. Fuck J.K. Rowling. Can’t forget that part whenever discussing her or her work.
The issue I have with this line of reasoning is that there are equally whimsical, better written series that just didn’t have good fortune to pop off the way HP did.
It’s marketing. And cover art. And simple timing of fads. It sucks. And it funded a horrible person through pure happenstance
Don’t need to meet a person to know they’re a horrible person. I know Orban is a horrible person. I know Chris Brown is a horrible person. I know Trump is a horrible person. And I know that anyone who defends them is a horrible person, for ignoring their horrible views and actions.
It seems best to disregard them entirely, since from a quick skim of their profile it looks like they really enjoy this kind of “I’m so aloof that means I’m clever” trolling.
Yeah. There’s a fan-fic I read recently (also the only HP fan fic I’ve read) called “Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality,” which is set in an alternate universe in which Harry is raised by perfectly pleasant folks with an understanding of the scientific method, and arrives in the wizarding world and immediately starts deconstructing all the bizarre nonsense going on there. It’s very well done, but it’s really hard to recommend precisely because it does refer back to a ton of the stuff that’s developed in the books, so I had to keep looking up stuff I didn’t recall, and I don’t really want to devote brain space to that stuff. (Some of the “rationality” stuff has aged a little bit poorly through the replication crisis, too, though I’m a bit more forgiving of that since it talks so much about updating your beliefs.)
But for anyone who did read the books back when and was frustrated at times by the characters behaving so irrationally, it’s kinda cathartic in that way. For those who are interested: https://github.com/rrthomas/hpmor
Oh, I didn’t know about that, but it isn’t hugely surprising.
I guess I should have mentioned this, but there’s a lot of stuff in the book that kinda seems like coded libertarian stuff, and it even flirts with pro-authoritarian stuff. It’s not a book I would recommend to kids or deeply uncritical people. That’s part of why this thread seemed like a safer place to mention it.
All true, though i still found it fun to read when the books came out. At that age my critical thinking skills were not as developed yet, and since that age group is the intended target audience the popularity is not that surprising.
There was short story about Harry Potter in a Disney Adventures magazine one month and I think that was supposed to be all there was as far as the story. The popularity of it may have had JKR rushing to build a more in depth story and throwing anything in it that seemed whimsical and fun to a kid, regardless if it made sense.
My theory, the first three/four books were written well enough, but the movies carried the rest of the series. She came really close to game of thronesing it too, but apparently average fans didnt mind the dieing baby voldemort in an all white train station ending.
Books 5-7 were awful in my opinion. I hated Harry through the entire last book, which I can’t imagine is intentional.
Book four was great. It was downhill from there as she couldn’t maintain the level. She also couldn’t keep it consistent. However, people were co paring it to literature. It’s kids books.
This is what I tend to say to people about Harry Potter as a series. It was the first series like it to become popular, and that’s its only merit. Overall it’s very tame and bland, but it got lucky and became popular. I didn’t like it because it was too same-y. After book 3 or so, I don’t care about Harry Potter anymore. Explore someone else that’s more ordinary. It makes a much better setting for derivative works, which to me as someone who writes textbooks of lore for RPGs is more important than just making a series sell well.
In all seriousness, this is what happens when you write novels without doing any world-building and just put down whatever seems “fun”. The are sooooo many things in that series that make no sense once they are superceded by later plot devices. Rowling didn’t think any of it through ahead of time and gave almost no thought to internal consistency with previous content when she wrote new things.
It’s honestly a terrible series in most regards and it’s kind of disappointing how popular it became.
Also she a trans-hating bigot. Fuck J.K. Rowling. Can’t forget that part whenever discussing her or her work.
Rule of cool supersedes making sense. Yeah there’s a ton of nonsense, but you called it yourself, it’s fun. That’s all that matters.
The issue I have with this line of reasoning is that there are equally whimsical, better written series that just didn’t have good fortune to pop off the way HP did.
It’s marketing. And cover art. And simple timing of fads. It sucks. And it funded a horrible person through pure happenstance
Horrible person?
I never met her actually. What’s she like in person?
Don’t need to meet a person to know they’re a horrible person. I know Orban is a horrible person. I know Chris Brown is a horrible person. I know Trump is a horrible person. And I know that anyone who defends them is a horrible person, for ignoring their horrible views and actions.
deleted by creator
Funny, I need to meet them first. Maybe you just like doing it more.
I see. So anything you have not personally experienced is to be disregarded entirely?
It seems best to disregard them entirely, since from a quick skim of their profile it looks like they really enjoy this kind of “I’m so aloof that means I’m clever” trolling.
It’s to be taken lightly.
So you’re saying you don’t believe Hitler was a Nazi anti-semite, because you never met him?
No matter the veracity of the information?
None of us have met you, and yet…
And yet you see a golden opportunity to indulge. Grasp it!
Hush.
Fun and atmospheric. Kids love it and that’s ok.
More than fun. It’s whimsical.
She’s a terrible person. I read the books to my kids but they are puarated so she doesn’t get a penny. Same for the movies.
Yeah. There’s a fan-fic I read recently (also the only HP fan fic I’ve read) called “Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality,” which is set in an alternate universe in which Harry is raised by perfectly pleasant folks with an understanding of the scientific method, and arrives in the wizarding world and immediately starts deconstructing all the bizarre nonsense going on there. It’s very well done, but it’s really hard to recommend precisely because it does refer back to a ton of the stuff that’s developed in the books, so I had to keep looking up stuff I didn’t recall, and I don’t really want to devote brain space to that stuff. (Some of the “rationality” stuff has aged a little bit poorly through the replication crisis, too, though I’m a bit more forgiving of that since it talks so much about updating your beliefs.)
But for anyone who did read the books back when and was frustrated at times by the characters behaving so irrationally, it’s kinda cathartic in that way. For those who are interested: https://github.com/rrthomas/hpmor
By an author who is also crazy and problematic, though in a very different way than Rowling.
Oh, I didn’t know about that, but it isn’t hugely surprising.
I guess I should have mentioned this, but there’s a lot of stuff in the book that kinda seems like coded libertarian stuff, and it even flirts with pro-authoritarian stuff. It’s not a book I would recommend to kids or deeply uncritical people. That’s part of why this thread seemed like a safer place to mention it.
True, but at least his version of the universe tries to be coherent.
All true, though i still found it fun to read when the books came out. At that age my critical thinking skills were not as developed yet, and since that age group is the intended target audience the popularity is not that surprising.
Yes, I liked it too but I’m not under the false impression that’s it’s a genius work. It’s a kids book that kids like and many adults enjoy too.
She’s a hateful awful person. Many people are.
I mean, I totally get it. There is just better stuff out there and it sucks that she got lucky when otherr, better authors don’t
Way back, years ago, and if memory serves…
There was short story about Harry Potter in a Disney Adventures magazine one month and I think that was supposed to be all there was as far as the story. The popularity of it may have had JKR rushing to build a more in depth story and throwing anything in it that seemed whimsical and fun to a kid, regardless if it made sense.
My theory, the first three/four books were written well enough, but the movies carried the rest of the series. She came really close to game of thronesing it too, but apparently average fans didnt mind the dieing baby voldemort in an all white train station ending.
Books 5-7 were awful in my opinion. I hated Harry through the entire last book, which I can’t imagine is intentional.
Book four was great. It was downhill from there as she couldn’t maintain the level. She also couldn’t keep it consistent. However, people were co paring it to literature. It’s kids books.
This is what I tend to say to people about Harry Potter as a series. It was the first series like it to become popular, and that’s its only merit. Overall it’s very tame and bland, but it got lucky and became popular. I didn’t like it because it was too same-y. After book 3 or so, I don’t care about Harry Potter anymore. Explore someone else that’s more ordinary. It makes a much better setting for derivative works, which to me as someone who writes textbooks of lore for RPGs is more important than just making a series sell well.